WATT PoultryUSA - February 2010

USA’s Top Turkey
Companies: Profiles
BY GARY THORNTON

WAT T PoultryUSA turkey rankings are based on total live pounds slaughtered annually. Data is from an exclusive survey of companies, published sources and industry estimates.

1>

▼

Employees ........................................ 5,500 Slaughter plants....................................... 4 Processing plants .................................... 6 Cooking plants........................................ 4 Feed mills ( 11,000 metric tons wkly) 3

Butterball LLC, slaughtered 1. 33 billion live pounds of turkeys in 2009, an 8.3%

decrease from the previous year. The company projects it will slaughter 1. 30 billion live pounds in 2010. Keith Shoemaker is president and CEO of Butterball, a joint venture of Goldsboro

Milling and Smith;eld Foods.

Six processing plants operate under the Butterball banner. The company’s slaughter plants are in Carthage, Missouri, Huntsville, Arkansas, Ozark, Arkansas,

Keith Shoemaker

and Mount Olive, North Carolina. The Ozark and Huntsville plants are primarily whole bird packing plants. Plants dedicated to cooking are operated at Jonesboro, Arkansas, Longmont, Colorado, and at Kinston, North Carolina.

At 675,000 square feet, the Butterball plant in Mt. Olive, North Carolina, is the world’s largest turkey plant.

Turkey Store, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hormel Foods.

Jennie-O Turkey Store in 2009 launched the “Be Well” advertising campaign, which underscores the idea that lean protein can help people achieve a healthy lifestyle.

The campaign included TV ads and sponsorship of NBC’s "The Biggest Loser" TV program.

Robert Tegt

2>

3>

▼

▲

Slaughter plants....................................... 4 Processing plants .................................... 7 Hatcheries ( 46 million poults annually) . 3 Feed mills ( 1. 45 million metric tons annually) ......................................................... 8 Breeder farms ....................................... 11 Grow-out farms...................................100